By KYIV. Jan 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Ministry of the Interior of Finland handed over to Ukrainian colleagues ten armored containers for bomb experts working in the territories of Ukraine liberated from the Russian occupation, and is considering the possibility of sending robotic equipment to extinguish fires at critical infrastructure facilities.
As an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported, Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky held a working meeting with his Finnish counterpart Krista Mikkonen at the State Emergency Service of Ukraine on Monday.
"We discussed many issues related to our future cooperation, and this cooperation is already very intensive, we receive a lot of help from our colleagues, in particular, for demining. Now we are receiving armored containers for bomb experts who will work in the hottest spots in the de-occupied territories, where our troops will enter in order to immediately begin demining and enable the civilian population to return," Monastyrsky told reporters during the transfer of equipment.
The Ukrainian and Finnish ministries also agreed on "horizontal cooperation" between the police, border guards and the State Emergency Service.
"We discussed the possibility of Finland helping us with robotic equipment, namely, special demining robots – this is very important in order to save the lives of our bomb experts," Monastyrsky said.
He noted that, unfortunately, pyrotechnicians are injured and die every week in Ukraine.
Another important area of application of robotic technology is firefighting, the Ukrainian minister said.
"This is very important for extinguishing fires at critical infrastructure facilities. We showed what robots we are already working with, talked about the number, and the minister left, undertaking to think and talk about how to help Ukraine with such equipment," Monastyrsky said.
In her speech, the Finnish Minister of the Interior noted that she was happy to help Ukraine in achieving victory. According to her, it was during the war that it became clear how important the work of rescuers was.
"Therefore, we wanted to help Ukrainian rescuers who are doing a great job," Mikkonen said.
